Bullet Trains!!!!

Narita Express ©2007 Jannese Rojas

Ok, I'm sure you have heard of the shinkansen,"bullet trains", in Japan, well they are fucking fast as hell. We took one from Tokyo to Kyoto, it was a 2hr 20min ride. It was really cool because we were blasting through mountains, the train felt like it was going to fly off the rails on turns, but it didn't and it was amazing. Well if you are planning to visit somewhere besides your incoming destination I would highly recommend getting a JR railway pass it will save you some money, they come in 7 day, 14 day, and 21 day passes. The less days on the pass the cheaper. The are only sold to foreigners so you must buy it in your own country, before you leave for Japan. The pass is good for all JR trains including the express train from Narita Airport, and the Yamanote line which is the central line in Tokyo and you will be using a lot. We were in Japan for two weeks so for the first week we didn't use the pass because we wanted it for Kyoto and the Narita express back to the airport, since we got the 7 day pass which cost $243 when we bought it, it various on the Yen at the time you buy it. So this is a pass to buy your ticket. When you get to Japan and when you are ready to start using the pass you take it to a JR station which are at every major train hub to cash it in. There are always very nice english speaking staff on hand so no worries.

Fabulous and cheap!

Lounge near elevators Oakwood©2007 Jannese Rojas

When we went in September to Tokyo we stayed at a very swank hotel/apartments. Oakwood Apartments in Shinjuku, the studio apartment comes with a full size bed, full kitchen, megascreen tv, cable, dvd player, bose radio, and the bathroom was amazing! Toilet and vanity/sink are separate from the traditional Tub/shower room, yes room! The toilet had a sorts of accoutrements to freshen your tushy and other parts. The tub is made so you have to have your knees up by your chin, but you are fully submersed in a temperture controlled tub, plus the shower is separate so you can shower pre-dip, which is the correct thing to do in Japan (just fyi if you ever go to a public bath or spring). The shower/tub room also acts a dryer for clothing if you need to hang stuff and dry, but you also have your very own washer dryer in the kitchen!!! You also have a balcony with a sweet view of Tokyo. They also have free internet in there lower level lounge and a beautiful 360 view of Tokyo from there Sky lounge. The hotel/apartment building is kept spotless, the front desk staff is super helpful, they will print maps out for you, tell you how much a ride from one train station to another will cost you, pretty much an entire staff of concierge service, just beautiful. The block is on is very quiet at night and there a bunch of 24hr restaurants right by the hotel. Shinjuku station which is THE main station in Tokyo is a 5 minute walk, and you are within walking distance of Kabuki-cho, major shopping area, there's a huge Kinokuniya bookstore, Takashimaya, Isetan, the Studio Alta building, and pachinko and karaoke galore. The rate there runs between $113-$125 a night which is amazing for a nice hotel in Tokyo. The one in Harajuku is awesome too but pricer but if within your buget well worth the stay.
View out Balcony,Tokyo©2007 Jannese Rojas
©2007 Jannese Rojas
©2007 Jannese Rojas
©2007 Jannese Rojas
©2007 Jannese Rojas
©2007 Jannese Rojas

Yakitori! Oy-shi!

Yaki-ton was a delicious (oy-shi)standing yakitori (grilled meats on a skewer)place near Oakwood Apartments (where we stayed). The chef(and we think also owner)was really friendly, eager to practice his english with us and throughly psyched that we were from NYC. We tried the chicken and pork yakitori. Pork of course comes in different varieties so we had to point to various parts of our bodies to indicate what we wanted because pork loin really gets really lost in the translation. You can have it with a spicy sauce or just salt and pepper, I highly recommend the salt and pepper version.And you can wash it down with an ice cold mug of beer or a yummy sake. As with many of the restaurants in Tokyo reading the menu is pretty much a complete loss, unless they have pictures. Yaki-ton has only a Japanese menu (which I didn't expect anything else, we were in Japan after all)but the chef is really sweet and is happy to help and the food is pretty delicious and inexpensive including the beer.

Yaki-ton
Shinjuku-ku
on Otakibashi-dori

Get off at the Shinjuku Station use the West exit walk straight towards the giant Epson sign. You will cross a big street called Yasukuni-dori(you'll see elavated trains on your right) when you cross over you will see a giant pachinko parlor and a shoe store on the corner, stay on that side (right side) of the street (this is Otakibashi-dori) it's about 3 blocks it will be on your right. Map below, walk toward the Oakwood Apts sign on the map.



Map of Shinjuku
click map for larger view